


Gilded Clockwork

by Pixiemage



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, F/M, Falling In Love, In which Rose stays, Injury
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-22 22:29:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4852949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixiemage/pseuds/Pixiemage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>*Title in the works; suggestions welcome!*</p><p>We know one timeline, one story, one possibility of what could have happened in any one lifetime.</p><p>But "What if..." and "If only..."</p><p>Aren't those the questions that create an alternate story, an alternate timeline? If in one moment, someone makes a slightly different decision and things turn out a different way...say, if a girl who fell in love with a time traveler chose to stay at his side, if her father never came to take her away...how would it all turn out? Or would it really turn out that differently at all?</p><p>An AU in which Rose isn't trapped in the alternate universe and the Doctor's life is turned upside down.</p><p>Basically a rewrite of Series 3 onward, with some Torchwood mixed in and a bit of Sarah Jane Adventures later on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gilded Clockwork

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! This is my first time posting anything here on AO3 and I'm sort of excited to see what you think! Hopefully my writing isn't too out of character...let me know if anything needs to be changed.
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> ~ Pixiemage ~

The Doctor gazed sadly at the spot Rose had just been, already missing her and wishing she was standing there with him. But it was for her own good. If he hadn't sent her to Pete's world, she could have been sucked into the void, gone forever…and that was a risk he simply wasn't willing to take. Knowing Rose was safe and never seeing her again was better than knowing she was suffering in eternal hell because of him.

He sighed and turned back to the computers, ready to continue what he had been working on before, when a voice behind him made him turn around in shock. 

"I think this is the on switch…"

 

It was Rose. 

 

The Doctor strode across to her and grabbed her by the shoulders, looking straight into her eyes, confirming that she was real, that she was here, that it wasn't just his mind playing tricks. 

"Rose…" he breathed. "Rose, what are you doing here? You have to go back!"

"No," Rose said stubbornly. "I don't. I  _won't_." He shook her, as if trying to knock some sort of sense into her.

"Once the breach collapses, that's IT," he insisted. "You will never be able to see her again. Your own mother!"

"I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never gonna leave you," Rose said softly. Her voice shook slightly, but her eyes were sincere and determined, as if daring him to tell her otherwise. He was at a loss for words. What could he do? No matter what he tried to do to keep her safe, she always found her way back to him, always risking her own life in the process. She was unlike any girl he had ever met…excepting, perhaps, Sarah Jane, but he had never felt for her the way he did for Rose.

Too stunned to say anything, the Doctor just stared at her, gazing into her unwavering green eyes. After a moment, he let go of her arms and stepped back in resignation. 

"What can I do to help?" Rose asked.

The computer's robotic voice interrupted his thoughts, throwing him back into reality with a jolt.

 

" _Systems rebooted. Open Access._ "

 

Void. Daleks. Cybermen…right. 

He held Rose's gaze for a moment longer before finally making up his mind. As much as he hated himself for choosing to let her put herself in danger, he could do nothing to make her go back and he would hate to fight with her right now, especially with the world about to end. He pointed over to the computer, an indifferent expression fixed on his face, bordering on frustration.

"Those co-ordinates over there, set them all at six," he said flatly. 

Rose did as she was told. He watched her walk to the computer. 

"And hurry up," he snapped, venting some of his anger without meaning to. He tried to ignore the nervous look Rose sent his way as he swiftly crossed to the other computer. He had only wanted to keep her safe. Why couldn't she just listen for once? Sometimes her loyalty and stubbornness drove him mad. Not that he didn't like the company - after all, it certainly made the current situation far less stressful, and he was very glad he wouldn't have to be traveling alone again after this. But if anything happened to her, he would blame himself wholly for it.

"We've got Cybermen on the way up," Rose announced from across the room. He came over to look at her screen, his hearts quickening.

"How many floors down?" he asked.

"Just one."

He nodded briefly and hurried back to his own computer. The muffled sound of approaching Cybermen could be heard from the stairs, and he blocked it out, focusing on the task at hand.

 

" _Levers operational._ "

 

The Doctor couldn't help but grin at the computer's announcement. Rose noticed and smiled herself.

"That's more like it, bit of a smile!" she said cheerfully. "The old team…!" 

The Doctor's grin widened and he went to grab the Magnaclamps.

"Hope and Glory, Mutt and Jeff, Shiver and Shake!" he agreed. As much as he was upset with her for coming back against his wishes, he reveled in the feeling of having his partner-in-crime back by his side, the two of them against the world.

"Which one's Shiver?" Rose asked teasingly.

"Oh, I'm Shake," he told her matter-of-factly. He handed her one of the Magnaclamps and they each attached their own to the wall opposite each other, directly next to the levers that would open the breach.

"Press the red button," the Doctor ordered, and Rose did as she was told. "When it starts, just hold on tight. Shouldn't be too bad for us but the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in void stuff. Are you ready?" 

"So are they," he heard Rose mutter. He turned around. There, hovering just beyond the glass of the window, hundreds of feet in the air, were four Daleks with their eyestalks trained on the pair. 

"Let's do it!" he shouted, and the two time-travelers pushed the levers upwards simultaneously then hurriedly took hold of the Magnaclamps.

 

" _Online._ "

 

The room was flooded with white light, just as it had before, but this time, a strong wind seemed to billow through the room. The Doctor and Rose hung on with all their strength and watched as the Daleks outside were sucked through the window, smashing through the glass as they were pulled straight into the white light, back to the Void. A feeling of great accomplishment and satisfaction rushed through him and he looked over to Rose.

"The breach is open! Into the Void! HA!" he shouted victoriously. Rose grinned back at him.

Their eyes met, they shared a smile, and for a moment, it seemed as though, for once, everything would turn out alright. 

But then everything went wrong. 

Suddenly, there was a small explosion of sparks and the lever on Rose's side moved back into the 'off' position. The smiles faded from their faces.

 

" _Offline._ "

 

"Hold on!" the Doctor shouted as the winds and suction from the breach began to weaken.

Rose reached for the lever while trying to maintain her grip on the clamp, but it was just slightly too far away. She strained to reach it, her fingertips groping out before her in a desperate attempt to fix things. Then her hand on the clamp slipped, and she fell onto the lever itself, holding onto it for dear life.

The Doctor looked on in horror, dread pooling in the pit of his stomach.  _Please…please, don't let her fall…_  His hearts pounded furiously in his chest and all the color drained from his face as he watched, unable to help her.

"I've got to get it upright!" Rose struggled with the lever for a moment, finally managing to push it back up where it was supposed to be.

 

" _Online and locked._ "

 

The wind picked up again and the suction increased, but now, Rose had nothing to hold on to but the lever.

"Rose, hold on!" the Doctor shouted in desperation. He glanced around furiously, trying to find anything, anything at all, that could help him save her. But there was nothing. Nothing he could do, nothing he could use. The Void continued to pull at Rose, making it near impossible for her to keep her grip. She winced and cried out with the effort.

"HOLD ON!" the Doctor screamed. 

Rose's fingers began to slip, her strength almost spent - the Doctor stared at her in absolute terror, horribly powerless, reaching out to her in vain. With one last cry, Rose's grip finally slipped and she was pulled inexorably towards the now closing Void, the light from the breach creating a golden glow around her.

"ROSE!" the Doctor screamed, watching as she was pulled away from him. " _ROSE!_ " Then he suddenly noticed the breach closing itself, and one small spark of hope was ignited in him, in that one infinitesimal moment.  _Maybe…just maybe…_

The winds ceased, the suction stopped, and the wall became what it had been before - just a wall. But Rose hadn't slowed, and she hit the wall full-force, the back of her head colliding with it. A crack rent the air and she collapsed, leaving the room in dead silence.

 

The Doctor felt his hearts stop.  _No…_

"Rose?" he breathed, frozen to the spot.  _No, no, no…_

He pulled his arm free of the clamp and rushed to her side, falling to his knees. He reached out a tentative hand.

"Rose?" he asked again, but received no reply. He shifted her head onto his lap and paled when his hands came away red. She was bleeding, and badly. "No…no, no, no, no,  _no!_ " He gently pulled her into his arms so her head was resting on his shoulder and his fingers fluttered to her wrist, checking for a pulse. It was there, thank God, but very faint, and growing weaker.

"Rose," he muttered shakily. "Rose...Rose, come on, stay with me. Don't you give up on me, Rose Tyler, don't you  _dare_  give up...not now, not yet. Please… _please!_  Rose! Rose…"

He felt dizzy, unable to breath. He sat there, frozen, trying to think, his mind moving a mile a minute, trying to think of how to save her. It could have been seconds, it could have been hours for all he knew, when he suddenly became aware of a muffled american voice and footsteps nearby.

"Tosh, run a scan for any alien tech. Owen, see who else is in the building. I know they had an evac, but I'm picking up two heat signatures near me. Also, keep an eye out for a blue…"

The voice cut off, and the Doctor, who had his back to whoever had just entered the room, turned slowly to look over his shoulder. There stood Captain Jack Harkness, coat and all, staring at him with an expression of shocked surprise.

"Jack…" the Doctor choked out. So he had survived. Most days, the Captain would be the last person he wanted to see, but now he needed help.

"Hello Doctor," Jack grinned. "Been a while. You changed. Who's your cosmetic surgeon? I'd love to meet him," he joked, but upon seeing how distraught and panicked the Doctor's expression was, the smile dropped from his face. "Are you okay?"

"Help," the Doctor said, his voice shaking but urgent. "She needs help. Help her...please!"

It was only then that Jack noticed the second person laying on the ground, partially hidden behind the Doctor's body. He crossed the rest of the distance between himself and the Time Lord, circling around to his front to see who was with him.

"Rose…" Jack breathed, crouching down beside her, avoiding the small pool of blood that had formed on the floor. The Doctor was cradling her head gently with one hand and the other was wrapped protectively around her. Jack felt her pulse, just as the Doctor had done, and quickly pressed a button on his ear piece.

"Owen, get up here, fast as you can. Could mean life or death."

_ "Where are you?"_

"Top floor. Hurry!" 

 _ "On my way."_ 

Jack turned his gaze on the Doctor. The man looked as though he was on the verge of an emotional breakdown.

"She'll be alright, I promise," Jack said softly, moving to sit directly beside his friend and putting an arm around his shoulders. "She's strong, Doc," he continued. "I don't know anyone else in the universe like her."

The Doctor took a shaky breath, as if trying to hold himself together, before letting out a short, muffled sob. He brushed a few blond strands of hair from Rose's forehead, his fingers lingering on her cheek for a moment.

"Because nobody else in the universe  _is_  like her," he whispered. After a moment, he frowned and looked up at Jack questioningly. "Hang on...how did you know it was me?"

Jack only grinned.

"I've been following you for a long time, Doc. You wouldn't believe the photographs of you that have popped up throughout history...not all of them with the same face." He smirked. "Loved the celery, by the way. Nice touch. Not many men can pull off a decorative vegetable." The Doctor snorted.

Running footsteps came echoing up the staircase and a man appeared, with short black hair and a large black bag in hand.

"Owen, over here!" Jack called, withdrawing his arm from around his friend's shoulders and waving a hand to catch the man's attention. "Owen Harper," he told the Doctor. "He's our team medic." Owen ran to where they sat and dropped down next to them.

"Team?" the Doctor muttered, puzzled, but neither man seemed to hear him. 

"What happened?" he asked, giving Rose a quick look-over to see if he could spot any immediate injuries. He reached out to turn her head so he could see the wound, and the Doctor shifted slightly to let him look. 

"We…we were opening the breach…a breach between two universes," he whispered hoarsely. He cleared his throat and continued in all-out Ramble-Mode. " _Weeell_ , we opened THIS side." He pointed up at the wall. "Straight into the Void. Reversed the polarity, and anything covered in Void Stuff got sucked right in." 

"Void Stuff?" Jack raised an eyebrow. The Doctor dug a pair of 3D glasses out of his pocket and handed them over. 

“Residual matter left on anything that travels through the void. Look through those. You can see the Void Stuff through them. Rose and I have got some too. Anyway! The plan was, since the Cyberman had traveled through the Void, and the Daleks had been hiding IN the Void, they were STEEPED in Void Stuff, so it would suck 'em right in. And it did, too...well that worked brilliantly, didn't it? Aren't I clever?" He grinned cheekily before plowing on, though Jack could see he was just trying to block out the pain. "Problem was, Rose and I had been through to the other universe once before, so we had the Void Stuff too. Bit of an accident, really, that trip was. So when the breach was opened, we had to hold on for dear life or risk getting sucked in ourselves." Owen nodded to the Doctor to let him know he was done, and the Time Lord shifted Rose into a more comfortable position. He let out a sigh.

"Long story short, Rose slipped, the Void closed, and she…she didn't slow down. She was heading straight for it, and…" He glanced up briefly and Jack followed his gaze. A small spider web of cracks could be seen halfway up the large white wall, a small splattering of red coloring it. The Doctor looked helplessly down at the girl in his arms. "And there was nothing I could do."

"Here–" Owen pulled a wad of gauze out of his bag and tossed it over to Jack. "Keep pressure on the wound to try and stop the bleeding. She's going to need proper treatment for that, and quickly, but I can't do it here." Jack moved to do as Owen had instructed, but the Doctor reached out a hand to grab it from him as he gave him a look that clearly said he wanted to do it himself. 

"We could take her back to the hub," Owen suggested from where he was standing. "We've got the medical equipment." Jack gave him a look.

"That's in Cardiff. We're in London. Or did you forget?" he said flatly. Owen looked as though he wanted to slap himself in the forehead for his stupidity.

"Right, sorry, forgot," he muttered. "Just an idea."

"The TARDIS," the Doctor said suddenly. "We can take the TARDIS." Jack grinned and leapt to his feet.

"What's a TARDIS?" Owen asked.

"It's his ship," Jack explained quickly. "Looks like a blue police call box from the 60's."

"Ship?"

"Spaceship."

"Okay…"

"I'm an alien," the Doctor said matter-of-factly, as if stating that the sky was blue. Owen stared at him.

"But you look human," he protested.

"No, you look Time Lord," the Doctor corrected. "We came first."

"Look, we don't have time for this. Where's the TARDIS?" Jack interrupted, suddenly feeling pressed for time.

"Downstairs," the Doctor said, also brought back to the task at hand, "About six floors down, I think…showed up in some sort of…office? Store room? I can't really remember. Busy day."

"Alright, let's get going." He pressed a button on his earpiece. "Tosh, change of plans. Pack up and meet us on floor 40. We've got a more pressing matter to deal with at the moment."

 

 

The Doctor pushed the TARDIS doors open and crossed the console room, gently lying Rose on the jump seat beside the console before rushing about the controls. Jack crouched beside her to keep an eye on her while the Doc was working. Owen and the other person Jack had brought along, Toshiko "Tosh" Sako, were staring around the room in disbelief.

"It's…it's bigger on the inside!" Tosh breathed. She whipped out some sort of scanning device and went about getting readings on the ship. "It's…but that's impossible. This thing is alive?"

"Yup," the Doctor said as he spun a hand-crank furiously and leapt to the opposite side of the control panel to flip a large lever. The doors swung shut on their own. "So, where are we headed? 'The hub', didn't you say?" he looked to Owen. 

"The hub," Owen nodded. "That's what we call our base, in Cardiff. Torchwood Three."

The Doctor froze, his hand hovering over a large orange button. His expression darkened as he turned slowly to fix his gaze on Jack, who had the decency to look apologetic.

 

"You work for Torchwood?" the Doctor said through gritted teeth, his tone dark. His eyes flashed angrily.

"I swear to you, we're different," Jack began, but the Doctor cut him off. 

"Everything Torchwood has done and you've been a part of it?!" the Doctor spat. He flung his hand out to gesture emphatically toward the jumpseat. "What happened to Rose, happened because of them!"

"We're separate from them," Jack insisted, his voice hardening slightly. "I remember what Torchwood Three was like when I first joined. It didn't matter to them if an alien was peaceful or not, alien was alien and that was that. It was all harm and no heart. When I was put in charge at Torchwood Three, I swore I'd change it for the better. And with what happened today, there's only the three of us left. Now, my hope is, the old regime was destroyed here, at Canary Wharf. I will rebuild it, I'll change it. I'll model it after what we do in Cardiff now."

The Doctor looked skeptical.

"Look," Jack huffed, shifting slightly so he could keep pressure on Rose's wound and face the Doctor at the same time. "I don't know what was going on here in London, but in Cardiff we don't make a habit of shooting down peaceful aliens. The only ones we deal with harshly are the ones who we know are hostile and that if we don't stop them, innocent people would get hurt or killed. You of all people should understand that."

The Doctor continued to glare at Jack, but after a moment, he clenched his jaw and nodded, albeit reluctantly. He slammed his hand down on the orange button.

 

"Hold on tight." He flew to Rose's side and kept her still as the ship shuddered into life. It seemed less rough of a ride than usual, as though the TARDIS herself knew what precious cargo she was carrying.

 

 

Ten minutes later, Rose lay in the autopsy room with the Doctor watching from his seat on the staircase. Owen definitely knew what he was doing, and that gave the Time Lord some sense of relief, but he was still as worried as ever. When Jack stepped into the room, he noticed this and shrugged off his long coat to hang it over the railing.

"You alright, Doc?" Jack asked, coming up behind him and sitting beside him on the staircase. The Doctor sighed and ran his hands over his face.

"I don't know," he muttered, still watching Rose and Owen. "I don't know what I would do if she died."

"She's not gonna die," Jack said. The Doctor looked up at him.

"Are just saying that, or or do you honestly believe it?"

"I believe it. I really do."

The Doctor nodded in thanks and looked down at Rose again.

"I just keep wondering…" he trailed off and fell silent for a moment, trying to find the right words. "I keep wondering if…if only we had been on opposite sides, would this still have happened? If I had been on that side of the room, instead of her, then it would have been me who had the faulty lever to fix. I would've been able to reach it, I wouldn't have slipped, and we would both be fine right now. Or maybe, if I had been paying attention when I was reprogramming things in the first place, I would have noticed the lever wasn't working properly and fixed it before we even turned it on. Or…or…" He ran his hands through his hair in frustration, making it stand up in every direction, before pushing himself to his feet and jogging back up the staircase. He began pacing on the walkway that overlooked the medical area, hands stuffed deep in his pockets and his mind jumping around to every possible way he could have stopped this from happening before it had.

What-If's and If-Only's danced around in his head until he finally gave in to the fact that he couldn't change it now, and he leaned back against the wall in resignation, sliding down to the floor with his head in his hands. He took a deep, shuddering breath and didn't look up when Jack sat down beside him once more. The man didn't say anything this time, only sat there with his friend to let him know he was there for him.

Meanwhile, Owen had finished cleaning and dressing the wound on Rose's head and had just used a what looked like a hand scanner – alien technology? – to check for any other injuries. A rotating x-ray of sorts showed up on the screen above the room, with a few areas pulsing red to show broken bones and such. Owen looked over the image and his eyes became fixed on one particular red mark.

"Jack?" he called. "You might want to see this." The Captain got to his feet and hurried down the staircase to stand beside Owen. "Look," the medic said, gesturing to the image.

"Is that…? No…" Jack said, shock evident on his face. The Doctor's head shot up and he scrambled to his feet, looking over the railing at the two men.

"What?" he asked, growing worried. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Oh my God," Jack breathed, oblivious to the Doctor's increasing panic.

"What is it?" the Doctor shouted, racing down the stairs to get a closer look at the image on the screen. Owen pointed to a pulsing red dot on the image in the center of her stomach. The Doctor froze, his brain taking much longer than usual to realize what it was. He stared at it with an expression of shock and awe frozen on his face as he quickly glanced from the image to Rose and back again.

"Is..is that?" he whispered hoarsely. "Is she…?"

"Yep," Jack said with a grin. "She's gonna have a baby." 

"Oh Rassilon," the Doctor breathed, and he slowly turned to look back at Rose. He walked over to her and slid his hand into hers, holding it gently, almost comfortingly. He could only imagine how difficult this was going to be for her, going through a pregnancy almost entirely on her own, what with everyone she loved trapped in an alternate universe where she could never reach them, never see them again. Pete and Jackie, and _Mickey_ … Owen pressed a few more buttons and the sound of a double heartbeat filled the room. The Doctor's head snapped around and he met Jack's eyes, shock and hope flooding through him, while Owen just looked confused.

 

"What?" the Doctor gasped, clearly surprised. " _What?!_  But…no, it can't be…I…that's not…" His eyes snapped back to Rose and he quickly pulled his hand away as if burned. Owen was still frowning at the odd rhythm of the heartbeat, and was looking over the machine in concern.

"That can't be right," he muttered. "Hang on…"

"No, that  _is_  right," the Doctor said suddenly. "It's mine. It's…it's part Time Lord. My god…" He ran his hands through his already unruly hair.

"Did you doubt that?" Jack asked jokingly. "Who else's would it be?"

" _Well_ , I thought maybe Mickey, but…" the Doctor said, still stunned by the revelation. "But…but this shouldn't be possible! Humans and Gallifreyans simply aren't compatible! This…" He gestured emphatically toward the screen. "...this  _isn't possible!_ "

"Well clearly it is, Doc," Jack grinned. "I guess you're not the last Time Lord after all." 

The Doctor was frozen to the spot, trying to digest this new piece of information. For starters, he was completely shocked. Of all the things that could have possibly happened to Rose or himself...well, to be honest, her becoming pregnant with his child...it was something he never could have foreseen happening. And, if he were being honest with himself, he was scared to death. It had been years – centuries – since he had last had a child of his own to care for. Did he even remember how to take care of a baby anymore? 

 

_ I guess you're not the last Time Lord after all… _

 

Slowly, ever-so-slowly, a small smile began to appear on his face and he stared down at Rose in awe. He cupped her face with one hand, his thumb gently brushing over her cheek.

"Oh, Rose," he sighed, and he bent down to place a soft kiss on her forehead. "My beautiful, wonderful, fantastic, amazing Rose…" His eyes drifted down to her stomach and it suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks. "I'm…I'm going to be a father," he gasped, a shaky smile blooming into existence, both elated and terrified at the same time. An expression of awe and wonder flashed across his face for a moment. "I'm gonna be a dad again!”

 

"Alien baby?" Owen asked, raising an eyebrow. "And I thought I'd seen everything." Jack laughed and pulled the Doctor into a heartfelt hug.

"Congrats, Doc," he said, patting his friend on the back. Then he looked around and realized something. "Where's Tosh?"

"I think she's still on the spaceship," Owen smirked. "Getting readings, trying to figure out how it works. You know her."

"TARDIS," the Doctor corrected automatically, still sounding slightly stunned. "Not spaceship.  _Well_ , not JUST a spaceship. And I should probably go get her before she gets lost. That place is a lot bigger than you'd think. I've gotten lost in there myself more times than I can count, and I've had her for a couple hundred years." With that, he walked off with a skip in his step to fetch the third member of Torchwood Three. Jack watched him go before turning back to Owen, his smile vanishing.

"Alright, what's up?" he asked seriously, knowing for a fact that Rose's situation wasn't in the clear just yet.

"Her being pregnant just makes this more confusing," Owen said shortly. He pushed a few buttons to turn off the sound of the heartbeat and brought up a few images of separate injuries. "She has a broken arm, two broken ribs, and a small fracture in her skull, but despite her having a weak heartbeat when I checked back at Torchwood One, all her vital signs are now perfectly normal. Since she's pregnant, she should be having a harder time because the baby puts an added stress on her system, but aside from her injuries, she seems absolutely fine. It doesn't make sense. AND, this says she's only three weeks along, but if she were, the baby wouldn't even  _have_  a heartbeat yet, not until the sixth week."

"It's part Time Lord," Jack pointed out. "Could make a difference in how the baby grows."

"But that doesn't explain the irregularity of her vital signs," said a voice darkly from the walkway above the medical room. There stood the Doctor, hands in his pockets, a grave expression on his face. " And apparently, for Time Lords, the hearts are formed earlier in the pregnancy due to the complicated nature of the bivascular system . Found it in here," he tossed Jack a large, ancient-looking book that he had somehow fit inside his pocket. "Page twenty-five. It's about Gallifreyan pregnancies. Haven't ever needed it, seeing as there haven't been any pregnancies on Gallifrey since before Rassilon's time…only loomings." He moved around to the staircase and jogged down them, pulling out his glasses to look at the screen in front of him.

"So what I don't get," he continued, "is why she's injured and not injured at the same time."

"How the hell did he get back so fast?" Owen hissed to Jack.

"Time passes differently inside the TARDIS," the Captain shrugged. He could have spent an entire hour processing this new turn of events _and_ researched everything there was to know about time babies, and still had time to take a nap. If he wanted, he could have done all of this and more in the one minute they had spent muttering in the autopsy room and they would have been none the wiser. The medic raised an eyebrow but didn't comment further.

"Has anything strange happened to her recently?" Owen asked the Doctor instead. "Anything alien? Besides you, I mean."

"Not recently, no," the Doctor said, still examining the information on the screen.

"Not recently?" Jack asked. "Meaning something  _has_  happened to her?"

The Doctor paused, a distant look in his eyes. It was as if he was looking at something in his mind's eye, remembering something from the past. 

"Yeah, back on...back on Satellite 5," he muttered. He blinked and cleared his throat, his focus returning to the medical scan. 

"You know, I've been meaning to talk to you about that," Jack said a bit angrily. "You abandoned me. Up there on that stupid satellite, you left without me. Why did you do that?"

The Doctor turned away from the screen to look at his friend, giving him a once over before turning back to the screen.

 

"When did you first realize you can't die?" he asked suddenly. Owen stared at his boss questioningly, but Jack was focussed on the alien in front of him. He was silent for a moment before shaking his head and saying,

"Earth 1892. Got in a fight in Ellis Island. A man shot me through the heart. Then I woke up…thought it was kinda strange… But then it never stopped. Fell off a cliff, trampled by horses, World War I, World War II, poison, strangulation, a stray javelin…" The Doctor winced. "In the end, I got the message. I’m the man who can never die." He gave the Doctor an accusatory look. "And all that time you knew." 

"That's why I left you behind," the Doctor said as his answer to Jack's question. "It's not easy even just…just looking at you, Jack, 'cause you're wrong." Jack scoffed. 

"Thanks."

"You are, I can't help it," the Doctor said, trying not to grin. "I'm a Time Lord. It’s instinct. It’s in my guts. You’re a fixed point in time a space. You’re a fact. That’s never meant to happen. Even the TARDIS reacted against you—don't know if you noticed, but it took longer than usual for her to take off. She was trying to convince me to kick you out."

Jack smirked.

"So what you're saying is that you're, uh…prejudiced?" The Doctor actually laughed this time. 

"I never thought of it like that," he grinned. 

"Shame on you," Jack said jokingly. He looked back up at the unchanging information on the screen and sighed. "Want to get some coffee? Rose is fine for now. Owen can tell us if anything changes." The Doctor reluctantly took off his glasses and nodded.

"Yeah, alright." He glanced back at Rose once more before following the Captain up to his office. "You wouldn't happen to have any tea, would you?"

 

 

"So," Jack said as he sat down behind his desk with his coffee. "Rose is pregnant." The Doctor hummed softly.

"Rose is pregnant," he agreed. "God, that's one thing I never thought would happen. I mean, she and I aren't even together, not officially anyway." He chuckled to himself. "Rose Tyler. She really is amazing, isn't she?" 

"Yes she is," Jack said with a nod. "I suppose I don't need to ask what you two got up to after I got left behind." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. 

"No, I suppose you don't," the Doctor grinned. "But don't go asking for any details, 'cause you won't be getting them."

"Oh, I'm sure I'll get it out of you sooner or later." The Captain gave his alien friend an inquisitive look. "Though you've got me wondering, if you two aren't 'together officially'–" he made air quotes, "–then how did you end up doing the horizontal tango?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes at Jack's way of putting it, then ran a finger along the edge of his tea cup, thinking.

"It was after one of our adventures…we had landed in this sanctuary base on a planet orbiting a black hole, and…well, long story short, we got separated, the coms cut out, I jumped into a bottomless pit, and she thought I was dead..."

 

 

_ The Doctor stood at the TARDIS controls in a bright orange spacesuit, having just sent Ida Scott back to her crew. Now all he had to do was wait for– _

 

_ The TARDIS door opened, and the Doctor looked up to see Rose Tyler standing in the doorway. A relieved, beaming smile spread across his face and the two ran forward to meet each other. He gathered her up in his arms, lifting her clean off the floor, and they both laughed - relieved, happy laughter that removed any worry either still had left. The Doctor couldn't explain in words just how happy he was to see her again. For a moment, he had thought he had lost her…had thought she was gone from his life forever…hell, he thought he was gone from this life forever, death unavoidable even with regeneration. _

 

_ He finally set the blonde down on the floor again and gazed down at her, taking in ever inch of her face, memorizing every detail, finding himself getting lost in the deep green eyes he thought he would never see again. He felt Rose's heartbeat quicken against his chest and realized they were still quite close…then was somewhat startled a moment later when he found he really didn't feel like separating. _

 

_ The Doctor's gaze slid down to her full, pink, slightly-parted lips, and his breath caught in his throat, his hearts hammering away against his ribcage. A part of him, the part of him that was still thinking rationally, came to the realization that he should probably apologize for scaring her the way he had, for making her think he was dead. He wanted to apologize to her, apologize in a way words couldn't possibly convey, and it was that thought that caused him to swoop down and capture her lips in a gentle kiss. _

 

_ Rose stiffened in his arms, and he thought perhaps he done something wrong. His fears were quickly diminished when she kissed him back a bit more enthusiastically, her hands moving up to tangle in his hair. He wrapped his arms tighter around her waist, pulling her closer to him, his hearts falling into rapid rhythm with her single one. A low hum from the TARDIS reminded the Doctor that they were still connected to the other ship, and he broke away rather reluctantly, resting his forehead against hers. _

 

_ "Help me take this spacesuit off?" he murmured, and Rose gave him a toothy grin. _

 

 _ "Alright," she agreed softly, "but only if you can promise me more of  _ this _  later." _

 

_ "Done," the time lord chuckled lightly. Once he had worked his way out of the orange suit - with a lot of help from Rose - he went over to the console and opened communications with the other ship again. _

 

_ "Zach?" he said. "We'll be off, now. Have a good trip home." Rose came over to stand beside him. "And the next time you get curious about something – oh…what's the point? You'll just go blundering in. The human race…" _

 

_ Rose shot him a mock-offended look, and the Doctor just grinned at her cheekily. _

 

 _ " _ But Doctor, _ " Ida's voice came over the speakers. " _ What did you find down there? That creature – what was it? _ " _

 

_ "I don't know!" the Doctor replied, feigning casual nonchalance. "Never did decipher that writing. But that's good! Day I know everything? Might as well stop." He cut communications for a moment when Rose have him a worried look. _

 

_ "What do you think it was?" she asked with a concerned frown. "Really?" _

 

_ "I think…we beat it," the Doctor said dismissively. "That's good enough for me." _

 

_ "It said I was gonna die in battle." _

 

_ The Doctor caught her gaze, could sense the mounting worry building in her eyes. _

 

_ "Then it lied," he told her, with such a quiet confidence that she smiled in relief, reassured for the time being. The Time Lord returned the smile and turned on the communications once more. _

 

_ "Right, onward, upwards – Ida – see you again, maybe!" _

 

"I hope so."

 

_ "And thanks, boys!" Rose called, her smile widening further as she forgot her worry from before. They did deserve more than her thanks though, really. If they hadn't forced her to join them in their ship, she would have died on that planet. Just as the Doctor was about to cut the coms for good, Ida's voice came through the speaker again. _

 

 _ " _ Hang on though, Doctor. You never really said…you two…who are you? _ " _

 

_ "Oh…" The Doctor looked to Rose and they shared a secret smile. "The stuff of legend." _

 

_ With those parting words, he cut the communications with the other ship and sent the TARDIS out into the depths of space. _

 

_ "So," Rose said slowly once the ship was set on autopilot. She stepped closer to the Doctor and ran her hands up his chest, gripping his lapels and gazing up at him with a soft smile. "Would you like to make good on that promise you made me?" _

 

_ The Doctor grinned down at her with a light chuckle. _

 

_ "I would, very much so," he murmured, drawing her closer to him. He leaned down and their lips met for a second time, causing both of their heartbeats to quicken once more. Her perfume clogged his nose, and he faintly registered that it smelled like her namesake…like fresh roses. His hands slowly slid up her back to tangle in her blond hair, his tongue slowly beginning to explore her mouth when her lips parted to grant him access. He let out a soft moan and Rose pulled away suddenly, and the Doctor was left kissing the air for a millisecond. He blinked his eyes open with a frown and opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but was silenced when Rose grabbed him by the tie and dragged him out of the console room and down the hallway, her tongue poking out mischievously between her grinning teeth. _

 

 

"So it was the heat of the moment?" Jack asked, hiding a smirk behind his coffee mug.

"You could say that, yes," the Doctor replied with a small smile of his own. Jack chuckled and took a drink from his mug. He licked his lips and asked the question that had been on his mind since before he had been left behind up on Satellite 5.

"Do you love her?"

The question was so abrupt and blunt that the Doctor nearly dropped his cup of tea.

" _Love_  her?" he repeated, staring at the Captain in disbelief. "What gave you that impression?"

"Nothing," Jack shrugged innocently. "Though if I said I hadn't noticed the way you two acted around each other before you regenerated I'd be lying. Plus, I don't see you as the type to just sleep with someone unless you had real feelings for them in the first place."

"Feelings, yes," the Doctor agreed. "I care about Rose a great deal. She means quite a lot to me, and I'm not sure what I would do if I lost her. But  _love_ …that's a different thing entirely." 

"You still haven't answered my question," Jack pointed out. "Do you love her or not? Personally, I think you do, but–" 

"No!" the Doctor snapped. "Or…or maybe. I don't know, alright? I'm not entirely sure  _what_  my feelings toward her are, I only know that there  _are_  feelings there. It's not like I've really had a chance to think about it, is it?" He nearly tossed the delicate tea cup back onto the table in front of him, but thought better of it. Instead, he said rather quickly,

"Change of topic. What did you get up to after we got separated?" Jack raised an eyebrow at the Time Lord's response, but allowed the subject change with a quiet huff.

"Last thing I remember when I was mortal," Jack said, "I was facing three Daleks. Death by extermination. And then I came back to life. What happened?" 

The Doctor blew on the steaming cup in his hands, taking a moment to answer.

"Rose," he said softly. Jack raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you sent her back home?" he asked.

"She came back," the Doctor said, a touch of pride in his voice. "Opened the hearts of the TARDIS and absorbed the time vortex."

"What does that mean exactly?" 

"No one's ever meant to have that power. If a Time Lord did that, he'd become a god, a vengeful god. But she was human." His eyes glazed over, as if he was looking at something Jack couldn't see. "Everything she did was so,  _so_  human." He blinked and looked up at Jack. "She brought you back to life but she couldn’t control it. She brought you back forever. That’s something, I suppose." He managed a half-smile. "The final act of the Time War was life." 

"Do you think she could change me back?" Jack asked, almost hopeful. The Doctor just shook his head

"I took the the power out of her," he said. "Pulled it into myself, then sent it back into the TARDIS. I couldn't handle it, and I still don't know how she did. That's why I regenerated, actually…couldn't handle all that power running through my brain, and that's saying something." He cleared his throat and met Jack's eyes. "Sorry, but you're stuck like this." 

"I...I kind of figured," Jack shrugged, finishing off his coffee and dropping the mug onto his desk. He looked a bit downhearted, so he quickly changed the topic. "I thought I'd never see you two again, you or Rose. I went back to her estate, in the 90's, just once or twice. Watched her growing up." 

"Do you wanna die?" the Doctor asked suddenly. Jack seemed to have not heard him.

"Never said hello, timelines and all that…"

"Jack?" the Doctor insisted. Jack sighed and ran a hand over his face.

"I thought I did," he said. "I dunno. But...but this lot..." he gestured towards the door. "Torchwood. They've become like a second family to me. I see 'em out there, working, living their lives, and that's fantastic." He grinned to himself, and the Doctor smiled as well. "But when they're gone - 'cause I know I'll outlive them one day - who else will I have?"

"You could always travel. Who knows, with you being an immortal ex-Time Agent, you may just run into another version of you out there."

"I could go meet myself?" he asked, smirking at the ridiculousness of it.

" _Well_ , the only man you're ever gonna be happy with," the Doctor teased. Jack laughed.

"This new regeneration, it's kinda cheeky," he said, winking at the Time Lord. The Doctor chuckled and sipped at his tea. He glanced around the small office and nearly choked on his drink. 

 

"Jack?" he coughed, hastily setting down the tea cup and staring at an odd contraption sitting on a table in the corner. "What the hell is that?"

"What is what?" Jack asked. The Doctor leapt from his seat and went over to the device, crouching in front of it and pulling out his glasses to examine it more closely.

"Jack, that's…that's a hand," he said. "No...no, wait, that's MY hand! What the hell are you doing with my hand?" He turned and gave the Captain an accusatory glare.

"Oh, that!" Jack grinned. "That's my Doctor Detector. Didn't I tell you I've been looking for you? Ever since you left me on Satellite 5." The Doctor was still examining his old hand, holding his new one up to the glass and comparing them side-by-side, muttering to himself as he did so.

"Well, I did say there was a slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle, so I suppose getting it cut off fixed  _that_  problem, but besides that…completely identical." He smiled, absolutely fascinated by the situation. Then he turned to Jack again. "How did you find it, anyway? And how did you get here after I left you in the future?"

"That's true, I haven't explained that bit yet, have I?" Jack grinned. "There I was, stranded in the year 200,100, ankle-deep in Dalek dust, and you go off without me. Don't even stay around to see what happens to everyone else." The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Anyway, like you said, I used to be a Time Agent, so I still had this." He held up his arm to show the Doctor the leather strap on his wrist. "Vortex manipulator. You're not the only one who can time travel, you know." The Doctor leapt to his feet.

"Oh, excuse me," he protested, gesturing wildly to the device on the Captain's wrist. " _That_  is not time travel. It's like I've got a sports car and you've got a space hopper." He looked almost offended at the idea of his TARDIS being compared as the equivalent of a vortex manipulator.

"Alright, so I bounced," Jack amended. "I thought ‘21 st  century, best place to find the Doctor’ except that I got it a little wrong. I arrived in 1869 and this thing burnt out so it was useless." 

"Told you," the Doctor smirked, dropping back into his chair and kicking his converse up onto the edge of the desk. 

"It was shortly afterwards that I was blackmailed into joining Torchwood. And no, I'd rather not talk about it," Jack said coldly at the Doctor's raised eyebrow. "I had to live through the entire 20th century waiting for a version of you that would coincide with me."

"So that makes you…what…150 years old?" the Doctor said, doing some quick math in his head. 

"And looking good, doncha think?" he winked at the Time Lord, who snorted. "So I went to the time rift, based myself there, 'cause I knew you'd come back to refuel. But when I finally get a signal on this thing detecting you, I'm in London, and it just so happens to coincide with my new team salvaging what we could from Canary Wharf, so I realized you must have been a part of it. And that's when I ran into you and Rose."

"And you found my hand how exactly?" the Doctor asked.

"Luck, mostly," Jack shrugged. "Right place at the right time. I was hanging around under that spaceship that showed up on Christmas, I saw something fall, and next thing I know, I'm holding a hand with a weird gold glow around it. I just kind of figured, it  _had_  to be yours. It wasn't human, and you're the only human-looking non-human I know who would be up on a spaceship like that, especially one hovering above the Earth."

"Right," the Doctor said sarcastically. "Sure. Just luck."

"But I was right, wasn't I?" Jack said, making a point. "You were up there, weren't you?" 

"Yep," the Doctor nodded. "And Rose, and Mickey. Lost my hand in a sword fight, but I was still in the first fifteen hours of my regeneration cycle, so it just grew back."

"Now,  _that_  is what I call luck," Jack grinned, and they both laughed.

"Jack!" Owen's shout traveled up to the office. "It's Rose..." Both men were on their feet and down the stairs in an instant.

 

"What've we got?" Jack asked, stopping at the railing and looking down at the medic.

"It's not good," Owen said. "There's very little brain activity, and she's not responding to any sort of stimulation. And not only that–" he pushed a few buttons and some test results appeared on the screen. "–she seems to be healing herself, a lot faster than is humanly possible. I can't wake her, and trust me, I tried. She isn't sedated, in fact there aren't any chemicals in her system at all...and I don't want to do anything drastic because of the baby."

The Doctor descended the staircase to the autopsy room and came to a stop beside Owen. "What do you suggest we do then, since you're the official doctor here? I mean, technically, so am I, but I'm THE Doctor, not  _A_  doctor, or not  _that_  kind of doctor. Not officially anyway. On one hand, I do know a thing or two about medical, but on the other hand, I never got a degree or anything." He was rambling again, and Jack could tell he was just trying to conceal his fear and worry. "Oh!" He turned to look at Jack, who had just appeared beside them. "And speaking of hands, do you still need my hand, or can I take that with me? I'd hate to have it fall into the wrong hands." He paused. "No pun intended."

"Your hand?" Tosh asked, appearing at the top of the stairs and jumping into the conversation.

"Yep, that thing in the jar," he nodded. "That's my hand."

"What d'you mean that's your hand? You've got both your hands, I can see them."

"Long story. I lost my hand on Christmas Day. In a swordfight. With the leader of the Sycorax...nasty creatures. Sounds a bit like that board game Clue, doesn't it? It was the Sycorax, in a swordfight, on Christmas Day." Jack chuckled.

"What? And you just grew another hand?" Tosh asked in disbelief. 

"Um yeah," the Doctor said indifferently. "Yeah I did. Yeah. Hello." He waved his new hand with a grin.

"What kind of alien are you?" Owen asked, bewildered.

"I told you, I'm a Time Lord. Last of my kind, actually.  _Well_..." he glanced back at Rose and smiled softly, though Jack could see some of the worry still hidden in his eyes. "Not anymore."

"So does this mean you're changing your lifestyle?" Jack asked.

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked, returning his focus to the Captain with a frown.

"You've got a kid on the way," Jack pointed out. "Can't just go running off into dangerous situations with a baby in your arms, now can you?"

"We could still go on adventures," the Doctor shrugged, appearing indifferent. "Just not dangerous ones. Fun planets, different planets, places Rose would find interesting. Just, you know, nowhere that we could get ourselves wounded, maimed, or killed." He stared off into space, and Jack had a sneaking suspicion he was thinking about the many life-threatening situations he had gotten himself into in the past. 

"You're gonna miss it, aren't you?" Jack asked knowingly. The Doctor met his gaze and nodded sadly. 

"I've been running my whole life," he sighed. "Running from danger, running from trouble, running to save the world...but not once did I think I would one day be taking the slow path. I've never really been one for domestics." He flashed Jack a half-humorous smile. "Though I suppose life on the TARDIS will never be truly domestic, will it? And one day, when our child is older, we can go on dangerous adventures again...only then, we can go as a family." Jack chuckled. 

"Don't forget to call me up once in a while," he said. "Your kid won't be growing up without Uncle Jack around, alright?" The Doctor laughed.

"Sure," he said. "Just don't  get all sad and hurt when our child looks at you for the first time and says you look 'wrong'. It's Time Lord instinct, nothing I can do about it." Jack snorted.

 

"You grew another hand?" Tosh said blankly, now standing with the rest of them, though obviously still in the previous conversation. "You're an alien, and you grew another hand?" The Doctor waved his fingers at the confused woman.

"Hello again," he grinned. "It's fine. Look. Really, it's my real hand. Identical to the one upstairs, if you want proof." Tosh shook her head.

"I think it's just the fact that you look human that's throwing me off," she said with a smile, finally believing what the Doctor was saying. "But you're not human. You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" The Doctor clicked his tongue and winked.

"Re-growing limbs, two hearts," Owen listed off, agreeing with her. "Is there anything else you've got two of?"

Jack laughed at the unintentional innuendo.

"Oi, I didn't mean it like that!" Owen protested, but that just got Tosh chuckling as well, and pretty soon the Doctor had joined them. 

"Sorry," Tosh said apologetically once the laughter had died down, pointing at their boss. "He set me off."

The Doctor shook his head with a smile and turned back to Owen, still wondering what his opinion on the situation with Rose was.

 

"So, what's the verdict?" he asked, trying to sound indifferent, but the concern in his eyes gave away his true feelings.

"Listen, mate," Owen rubbed his hands over his face, looking properly tired. "She's suffered a severe head injury, her brain activity is minimal, and there is a very good chance she could go into a coma if she isn't in one already." The Doctor tensed. "I think you need to bring her to a hospital. A proper hospital. I mean, I'm a great doctor, but you need someone who can look after her 24/7 until she's healed. Besides, this isn't a medical practice, it's an autopsy room, and we usually use it to look at dead aliens. So not exactly the best place to keep an injured mother-to-be."

"Quite right," the Doctor said after a moment, and despite his calm appearance, Jack could tell he was panicking beneath the surface. "I'll…er..." He trailed off, unsure of where to bring Rose. He couldn't bring her back to New Earth, not after seeing what the Sisters of Plenitude had done to become so good at healing. And he wasn't sure traveling in time would be a good idea anyway. It could have unexpected side-affects in her condition.

"You could bring her to London," Jack suggested. "I hear the Royal Hope Hospital is fantastic, great hospitality."

"Wonderful," he said, nodding to Jack. "Thank you."

"Oh, and," Jack added as an afterthought, "since you're heading to London anyway, you wouldn't mind dropping us back at Torchwood One, would you? We still need to go through the building, and we left our car behind as well, so..." The Doctor chuckled.

"There's always something else with you, isn't there?" he joked, then sighed and ran a hand through his hair, stepping up beside the table Rose was lying on. "London it is, then," he muttered.

 

_End of Chapter One_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I don't know when the second chapter will be posted, but I'm working on it as we speak. Please leave a comment if you'd like. Critiques and suggestions are accepted!
> 
> ~ Pixiemage ~


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